Biography Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 in Surrey, England, as the third son of Dr. Leonard Huxley and Julia Arnold. He is the grandson of T.H. Huxley. Educated at Eton, Aldous Huxley was forced to leave the school at the age of seventeen due to an affliction of the eyes. He was left partially blind for two or three years and therefore was unable to complete the rigorous scientific training he had undertaken. When his eyesight improved, Huxley went to Oxford where he received a degree in English literature. Huxley's career started in journalism and included music and artistic criticism as well as book reviews. He also began writing poems, essays, and historical pieces. However, his satirical novels were better received by the public than his other writings. His first book was a volume of poetry called The Burning Wheel. While working as an editor for House and Garden during the1920's, Huxley wrote many novels including Brave New World. Huxley spent several years in Italy where he formed a friendship with D.H. Lawrence and even edited several of Lawrence's letters in 1933. In 1937 he moved to the United States. Huxley received the Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959. He was living in California at the time of his death on November 22, 1963.
Huxley's Notes
For the 1946 reprint of Brave New WorldAldous Huxley added a foreword in which he discussed his novel. Huxley felt that a major defect in the work was that he limited the Savage to only two choices at the end, an insane life in Utopia or the life of a primitive in the Indian village. The choice is between insanity or lunacy, and the Savage finishes by choosing insanity, ending in his despairing suicide. Huxley felt that the choices were too limiting, and that sanity should have been an option via "a society composed of freely co-operating individuals devoted Huxley also commented on the lack of scientific marvels. Several critics had complained that even though the concept of nuclear fusion as a power source was well known, nowhere is it used in the novel. Huxley explains the omission with a powerful quote, "The theme of Brave New World is not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals."
Aldous Huxley concluded with a discussion on totalitarian governments. His vision of the future is a world in which totalitarian regimes dominate the realm of real world politics. He asserted that the goal of totalitarianism is to make people love their servitude, for which he offered several necessary steps: 1) an improved technique of suggestion starting in childhood, 2) a developed science of human differences so that each individual may be placed into the proper societal role, 3) a new narcotic which is less harmful but more powerful than heroin, 4) a "foolproof system of eugenics," which he implied to take much longer to achieve than the previous three steps. Brave New World should be viewed as this sort of totalitarian state projected six hundred years into the future.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
BiographyAldous Leonard Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 in Surrey, England, as the third son of Dr. Leonard Huxley and Julia Arnold. He is the grandson of T.H. Huxley. Educated at Eton, Aldous Huxley was forced to leave the school at the age of seventeen due to an affliction of the eyes. He was left partially blind for two or three years and therefore was unable to complete the rigorous scientific training he had undertaken. When his eyesight improved, Huxley went to Oxford where he received a degree in English literature. Huxley's career started in journalism and included music and artistic criticism as well as book reviews. He also began writing poems, essays, and historical pieces. However, his satirical novels were better received by the public than his other writings. His first book was a volume of poetry called The Burning Wheel. While working as an editor for House and Garden during the1920's, Huxley wrote many novels including Brave New World. Huxley spent several years in Italy where he formed a friendship with D.H. Lawrence and even edited several of Lawrence's letters in 1933. In 1937 he moved to the United States. Huxley received the Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959. He was living in California at the time of his death on November 22, 1963.
Huxley's Notes
For the 1946 reprint of Brave New World Aldous Huxley added a foreword in which he discussed his novel. Huxley felt that a major defect in the work was that he limited the Savage to only two choices at the end, an insane life in Utopia or the life of a primitive in the Indian village. The choice is between insanity or lunacy, and the Savage finishes by choosing insanity, ending in his despairing suicide. Huxley felt that the choices were too limiting, and that sanity should have been an option via "a society composed of freely co-operating individuals devotedHuxley also commented on the lack of scientific marvels. Several critics had complained that even though the concept of nuclear fusion as a power source was well known, nowhere is it used in the novel. Huxley explains the omission with a powerful quote, "The theme of Brave New World is not the advancement of science as such; it is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals."
Aldous Huxley concluded with a discussion on totalitarian governments. His vision of the future is a world in which totalitarian regimes dominate the realm of real world politics. He asserted that the goal of totalitarianism is to make people love their servitude, for which he offered several necessary steps: 1) an improved technique of suggestion starting in childhood, 2) a developed science of human differences so that each individual may be placed into the proper societal role, 3) a new narcotic which is less harmful but more powerful than heroin, 4) a "foolproof system of eugenics," which he implied to take much longer to achieve than the previous three steps. Brave New World should be viewed as this sort of totalitarian state projected six hundred years into the future.
ALDOUS HUXLEY'S BRAVE NEW WORLD
Brave New World - Film, Lit and the NOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLTS5cv45Cs
Aldous Huxley's Mind Control Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erSkxn6TlDE
SUMMARY
http://www.gradesaver.com/brave-new-world/study-guide/short-summary/
CHARACTERS
http://www.gradesaver.com/brave-new-world/study-guide/character-list/
IROM MAIDEN – BRAVE NEW WORLD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOyiaVezOm4